


Keep Them Safe

by windsweptfic



Category: Captain America (2011), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Capture, Gen, alright the ending isn't ambiguous to me but you all can pretend different, ambiguous ending, some descriptions of torture-inflicted injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-27
Updated: 2012-04-27
Packaged: 2017-11-04 09:58:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/392559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/windsweptfic/pseuds/windsweptfic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'I'm not interested in being a superhero. I just want to keep him safe.' </p><p>Because sidekicks are just as stupidly noble as their heroes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Keep Them Safe

**Author's Note:**

> This story inspired by [this photoset](http://manueluv.tumblr.com/post/21242932646) on Tumblr, which has gifs of the two 'sidekicks', Rhodey and Bucky, and a line of Rhodey's from the Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes cartoon.

Neither asks if they regret their decision.

Bucky tilts his head back against Rhodey's, lifting his chin up as he swallows the blood trickling down his throat. If he looks cross-eyed he can see the bend where his nose is broken, crooked and bruised purple-red. He's long since lost feeling in his hands, tied behind his back: bound between the two of them. The numbness has spread up his forearms--but at least it means he can't feel the sharp bite of metal around his wrists, anymore.

It was worth it.

"Damn," he rasps, closing his eyes as he leans against Rhodey's back. "I never wrote a will."

Captain America's armor is a small, sad pile in the corner of the room, red and white and blue scraps of fabric torn to shreds. One of the long lines where they cut it off him still bleeds, sluggishly, trickling wetness down his ribs. They'd been like naughty children opening up a present at Christmas time, gleeful and joyous until they found that inside the box was just a lump of coal.

"Do you even own anything that Steve or SHIELD didn't buy for you?" Rhodey asks, his voice low and hoarse, tinged with amusement. 

Chunks of Iron Man's secondary suit lay strewn about on the floor, the metal warped and twisted. After cutting Bucky out of his armor they'd started on Rhodey, shouting agitatedly as they pried bits of red and silver off him, wary of another surprise.

They weren't happy about that present, either.

Bucky's mouth curves up in a smirk.

"Nah. But I don't want Clint getting my sniper rifles."

Rhodey laughs, the sound rough, grinding. The wry twist to Bucky's mouth softens because, yeah. Rhodey gets it. Rhodey doesn't regret anything, either.

Their captors return, red-faced and furious. They shake their fists, wave their guns around, yell at them in a language neither of them understand. It doesn't matter; the meaning is clear enough.

They did not get what they wanted.

Bucky's head knocks back against Rhodey's as the muzzle of a gun is pressed against his forehead, enraged eyes glittering down at him. Point blank, a single bullet will take out them both.

Yet Bucky can't help but grin--because Steve is back in New York. Because Steve isn't here; because Steve wasn't the one cut out of Captain America's uniform. Because Steve isn't the one about to die. And neither is Tony, his red and gold suit still safe at Stark Tower; his portable one now destroyed for good.

But Steve and Tony will be the ones to be here, later, once the detonator slipped into Rhodey's gauntlet goes off. They'll be able to tell the people that the terrorists were foiled, that neither Captain America or Iron Man agreed to the demands to turn themselves over to the enemy. They'll be the ones to comfort the terrified ex-hostages.

They'll be _alive_.

So Bucky grins, teeth bared and eyes proud, as the man's finger tightens on the trigger. 

Steve is safe.

It was worth it.


End file.
